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scout cookies. and first, the uninhabited islands in the pacific ocean could lead to world war iii. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. in new york where up to a footf of snow is on the ground right now as a major winter storm continues to battle the northeast. a state of emergency in effect in new york, and massachusetts and connecticut and rhode island and new hampshire and across the region, 650,000 homes and businesses are without power this morning. new york mayor michael bloomberg urged people to stay off of the roads, but the long island expredzway is littered with cars that became stuck overnight. new england is getting the brunt of the snow with two feet of snow in boston. and massachusetts governor deval patrick has banned every vehicle on every road in the state. and the snow is creating a travel nightmare for passengers

with more than 5 sthou flights cancelled already. we will have updates throughout the show this morning, but now we are turning to a threat that is more manmade than nature-mad nature-made, and that is the threat of war. this mile an houring, i wa inii morning i want to direct your attention to a little skirmish in the china sea and the bbc it is calling it a little skirmish that could have big, big consequences, think world war iii consequences, and it is because of these teeny islands that are inhabitable, and even the name is in dispute with china calling them one thing and japan calling them another. the dispute was reignited when the chinese government accused tokyo of stealing, and sent two naval enforcement ships to the area in a show of force.

across china, anti-japanese protests started causing a protest of japanese protests and those who use them. and the protests are so bad that a chinese man made the simple mistake of driving a japanese car in a chai neads city of chian and was beat sewn badly he is paralyzed. this week, a chinese minister accused a japanese vessel of target i targeting the radar on a japanese ship off of the islands, but the chinese officials are disputing it happened. now think about this, the world's second and the third largest economies playing chicken in the pacific over a dispute of uninhabited islands, but if this diplomatic disagreement were to escalate into a military obligation, the united states would be obligated by the 52-year-old treaty

obligation to help the sovereignty of japan, and does that mean that north korea would come to the aid of china, but it is a quaint and admittedly alarmist experiment, because that is not how foreign wars are conducted anymore. next month marks the 10-year invasion of iraq, and the last conflict that we can think of conventional war that claimed the lives of more than 4,000 americans and by some counts more than 110,000 iraqis, all because of the bush administration's false claim that iraq had weapons of mass destruction. >> at this hour, american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq, to e free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. on my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected

targets of military importance to undermine saddam hussein's ability to wage war. >> that turn ded out to be quit not so sure, because perhaps the iraq war was to war to end all wars, because even the war that we are still fighting is looking less and less like the traditional mobilization of the ground troops and the tanks and fighting forces that were once the core of the overseas interventions, but for the most parts, bootss on the ground hav been shipped back home and backed up by drone strikes, the perpetual war state ignited in response to the september 11th attacks has become an institutional apparatus that needs no particular provocation. what were thought to be finite measures in 2001 are now entrench eed protocols from targeted kill lists to imminent threat. counterterrorism policies put into place under president george bush have been continued and robust ly expanded under

president obama. just last month in his second inaugural address president obama called for an inlasting p does not require perpetual war, but that is what this administration has largely institutionalized. this week, michael isikoff got a hold of a secret department of justice memo which outlines the legal basis for the administration to use legal force in count terrorism tactics even against american citizens. this is the provocation for use of force and one that trumps constitutional protections and it goes further that the military can engage in a preemptive attack even without clear evidence that a specific p attack is eminent. while we can be sure that a mere territorial dispute will not lead our troops back into the

trenches burk the trenches, but the explanation of what constitutes a preemptive strike, we are left of asking, what will get us out of war? and joining us is roulajabril, and professor of law at syracuse university, and the chairman of the project against unjust crimes to end humanity, and the editor of "time" magazine which is devoting the cover story to the "rise of drones." let's start with you here, because it is quite a week, jim, on this question. if we start by thinking of war, what counts now as imminent threat? what is the thing that ought to move us into war? >> well, yeah, it is particularly troubling that the white paper laid out a definition of imminent threat that changes the completely conventi conventional definition of what an imminent threat is.

and the definition is so vague that drones can be employed anywhere in the world against united states citizens without due process of law and that makes us ask, when is the united states, the president, and the administration very often in secret justified in projecting force all across the world with lethal means without any kind of recourse or any due process or any real justification or call for accountability by the united states people? i mean, this conversation is far overdue, because this is really just a continuation, as you described, of bush era policies, and this is really a rumsfeldian view of war that obama has not just continued, but expanded dramatically and it is the lasting legacy of foreign policy. >> and that leave mes with the question because of so many ideological differences of president obama and president bush, but not on this. it suggests possibilities that presidents are just presidents and they always expand their kind of war powers which is one possibility, and the other is that the president nose

something that i don't know about what constitutes threats to the national security, and the third is that well, on this one question, this president is just as hawk ish as george w. bush and any way to adjudicate the possibilities of what war means to the obama administration? >> well, i think that, i think that is absolutely right, it has been a continuation of the bush administration policies, and yes, administrations always try to push the outer bounds of the authority. but one thank is clear is that the laws of war have not changed even if the practice has changed. there are really three reasons that a country can, a state can use force outside of its borders. one, if it is the victim of an armed attack and second if the u.n. security council authorizes it, and three, assisting a state that requests it, and we have stretched that boundary as well far beyond what the laws of war call for. so i think that there is a very serious question about this

question of perpetual war, but we should remember historically in the 20th century, the u.s. was at war virtually every decade of the 20th century, so if we think of ourselves as peaceful country that does not engage in war, we need to rethink that. >> that is right. david, i want to ask this question, because where we were before and boots on the ground, the sense of the collective experience of war was quite different. we were looking at the numbers of military troops versus civilian americans not engaged and it is less than 1% of the u.s. population that is doing the fighting, and now with technology and drones, it, part of it why perpetual war seems possible because there is little cost to the vast majority of us. >> well, if we had a universal draft and in 1994 two-thirds of the class of princeton was drafted. that is a huge check on the politicians, and the policies that we are are following with drones are infuriating people because other people get killed and innocent people killed along

the way, which raises in your question that you are raising future conflicts, and the anger that, imagine if somebody was using a drone here and killed innocent americans the response that we would have to that. >> absolutely. and rula, that is what i want to ask you, because are we creating perpetual war in part by creating new enemies? >> let's think of it this way also, the kill list after september 11th was 10 people, and now it is thousands of peoples and we don't know who are these peoples and what they have done simply because if you are an executive of the al qaeda in yemen, pakistan or somalia and you have been killed your cousins or your driver will take your place and with him many other people. the implication of the use of drone is not known in america, but it is not, and it is very well known in pakistan, and especially in the areas of the waziristan where people cannot stand americans anymore, because of the buzz of the drones going over their heads over and over. they know that you might give a

ride to a guy in the streets or you might be talking to another g guy, and actually in a coffee shop, and you will be killed in that moment without any reason, simply because you were standing in the wrong place at the wrong person. so all of this has terrible implications, but if you think of what is happening in yemen, i mean, the major al qaeda fighting there or the islamic fight is not against the americans anymore, but the yemeni government and the pakistani government and so it is engaging in a war that is an american war which it is not a american war. >> not anymore nthan the tiny islands off of japan. >> and that is going to make it easier for the people to fight it actually. >> and to find it effective in the long term. we want to stay on this issue the kill lists and the drone and the tools of war. what if our enemies with were using them against us.

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on wednesday, the senate intelligence committees confirmation hearing for cia nominee john brennan got off to a rocky start when protesters from the activist group code pink for peace said their peace. >> they won't even tell congress what country we are killing children in. senator finestein -- >> if you could expedite the removal -- >> and it is more important of the children in pakistan and yemen and are they more important? do your job! >> code pink like john brennan has been a public fixture since 2002 when groups like that one first began public action. code pink started with a four-month all-day vigil in front of the white house to prot

protest the impending war in iraq, and thursday, they held up red painted hands on behalf of mothers who have lost children in yemen and pakistan and somalia and all place where is the obama administration's drone program has touched down. but it was not just code pink who was questioning the controversial program. the brennan hearing has opened up a bigger debate of the administration's current military tactics. so i'm like a little bit that the drones become a mean for liberals to scream drones, and there is not an actual topic, but it is way of saying, i'm not for the obama administration from the left? but there is something important to say about the actual use of that tool in conjunction with the kill lists. >> yes. i think that after the iraqi war, no government, and everybody understood that no one have the political capital to engage in an invasion, ground invasion, so they decided, okay, let's enhance something else. they didn't think of any other

method except drones, and that is why they enhanced that method, because we will kill al qaeda and that is the only strategy. the problem with no other strategy on the ground, you have a secretive tool that no other country, and any other country can start thinking that they can create a dangerous precedent, and the iranians today have a drone or north korea or china would start to use the drones as you said before against their neighbors. we are creating a precedent that is illegal, that is so secretive and there's no one can actually stop or predict the implication of it. >> rula, on that point, general dempsey was asked about that, and let's listen to what general d dempsey responded by ted koppel. >> we have implications today that make us comfortable with the use of drones burk imagine if some other entity had the capability of using drones against the united states. are we prepared for that? >> well, i think that --

>> as a nation, i mean. >> well, i think that we are are prepared for that, and it is maybe even an inevitability. >> an inevitability. >> well, yeah, you can buy a drone at radio shack, and nonstate actors are going is the get drones and use them. >> they don't have bombs at radio shack. >> no, but you can weaponize them pretty easily, and in the ability to build these is within the reach of nonstate actors which poses a whole set of policy questions, and we are not addressing them at all. >> maybe this is the response of gun hunters, you don't weaponize, but just build a drone and blow up the deer. so there is a part of me, is this just us having overangst or are these real possibilities and the possibilities of drone attacks in the u.s.? >> well, in the senate committee there was not a lot of angst and the most remarkable thing is that he is not questioned hard and we are sitting around here and talking about it and with we are angstingk but it seems that the government and the d

democratic and republican congressmen are okay with this. it seems we have crossed a line. remember that brennan was toxic in 2008 and now in 2013, he is the presumptive nominee, and he will be voted in. >> why? why this level of comfort if there wasn't once? >> well, to be slightly con tlarn here. >> yes. >> we often react to new technologies by saying, oh, my goodness, all sorts of terrible things will happen because the new technology exists and maybe we shouldn't use it. someone would have started using drones anyway if the u.s. hadn't. i'm a little bit more concerned about, and general dempsey better be prepared, because lit happen. i'm a little bit more concerned about the basically the two issues at play. one is a policy issue and the other is a legal issue. the policy issue is how effective are the drones for the purpose that you are using them for, and is it legal to use the drones in the way we are using them and on the legal side first, and it is really clear in

the laws of war, anybody outside of a zone of armed conflict is a civilian no matter how many stars they have on their jacket. so if you see the area of the armed conflict as being afghanistan for example that congress has authorized us to fight in, and chasing al qaeda all around the world in yemen is patently illegal. >> and even if they are in fact members of al qaeda? >> yes, unless they are, unless they are actually pose an imminent danger, and we exigent circumstances and we stretch that. >> and since we are not fighting a conventional war, and al qaeda is not a regular army and this is going to be the future, and we know that the future, we will not be fighting regular armies and we have to look at it in the legal way and reform it in terms of war. and secondly n yemen, yes, it is true that we are fighting al qaeda there and you are talking about the implication of that, but it is what is happening in yemen that the more we use those

drones, the more al qaeda groups are increasing, and that is what i think that the strategically we should think, is it really effective? is it helping our cause? >> that is the policy question. >> and yes, i want to stay on that, because part of the question on the question of effectiveness is whether or not give ten nen the new realities we need to rethink a moral and legal and ethical way to prosecute war when we come back. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief.

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boggling, and the white paper gives the administration unchecked pow toer to carry out these attacks. it is a secret determination by what is called in the white paper an informed high level government official. there's secret evidence that we have no access to, and a secret definition of the enemy, and the definition, and it is carried out if someone poses an imminent threat to the united states, but the definition of imminent is stretched out of all proportion. >> so how much have we ever really known, and american citizens in the context of war, and even in the conventional warfare, how much did we know about who the enemies were and why we went to war and in is the nature of war propaganda and give me a sense of how different this is than world war i or world war ii? >> i am sorry, i don't think that we know, because this is the future of war. you have cyber attacks, and you have the use of drones, and you have actually a kill list that

anybody can decide. look at what the israelis are doing with the iranian si scientists, and somebody is killing them, and we don't know who this is and they are deciding to do it, and we are doing the same more or less, and this is the big question. what if every country start to use this method without any judicial -- >> or non-state actors. >> yes, and where is the legality stops and the responsibilities end? >> and there are some things that we do know, and world war ii we know from the bombing it was not effective for example, but one of the things that we do know is the budget. we are about to get the president's budget, and you watch and i predict ed this in the columbian journalism piece, and this news media will say that he will propose $25 million or $50 million budget, and that is not the military budget, because it is closer to $1 trillion. we have a huge amount of money spending for the wars past and the doctrine of one land war in

after ka and o africa and one in asia and one in europe. and you are right, the non-state actors and the cyber war which the "washington post" had a big series on were totally unprepared for and the businesses were unprepared for and we could have been if we had planned for it early on. >> and the battle and ttanks -- >> and the new aircraft carriers. >> and one of the media narratives you will see over the next few weeks with the sequestration kicking in is how debilitating the cuts will be, but looking over the last century, the 30% cut is less than post vietnam and certainly less than post world war ii, and certainly, much smaller on the percentage basis than world war i, so one of the things that you have to be on guard for is the taboo subject that military budgets are untouchable even if we are moving into drone warfare and special ops. so much of the budget is devoted to gigantic division level

assets. >> well, this is what is it for and if you remember last year, only last year, $75 billion exported only in weapons. $33 billion the saudi arabia, a country that financed extremists sal s salifis against us. >> and in every point around us, it felt perfectly fine as a world leader on this question of how to create the balance of power. so on the one hand, i hear the language that we are creating the slippery slope that allows state actors and non-state actors to make use of the technologi technologies, but it is not true given our history with a different war technology. >> well, we were incapable of

stopping india, and pakistan and it appears, but we don't know at what level iran is. the u.s. military history is not great in terms of preventing these kinds of technologies from leaking through and seeping through. >> right. >> and so for all of the successes that the much vaunted united states foreign military policies can point to successes, there are a tremendous amount of failures in capability and we are seeing it play out in iraq. there is hype and misinformation, and to the core, we don't know how far along they are, and we have to be on guard for misinformation there, and as we have been talking about already, the problem of the nuclear capability and the drone capability is so much cheaper and democratic and when we talk about the drones, it is a remote controlled aircraft that have been around forever and the technology is better, and you can weaponize a radio shack drone right now, and the "time" cover story was about drones coming home and not just in term

s of using them against civilian populations, but civilians using them for their own purposes. >> when i said that i was concerned about people wanting to weaponize them. but i'm interested in brennan and who he is and what he once said when we come back. [ whispering ] i've always preferred the crème part of an oreo. [ whispering ] that's crazy, the cookie's the best part. crème. cookie. crème. cookie. [ whispering ] crème. [ whispering ] cookie. [ whispering ] crème. [ whispering ] cookie. [ whispering ] crème. [ whispering ] cookie.

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its unique micro-clean formula kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. in 2008, john brennan had to withdraw his name from consideration for the cia director over concerns for his support over the use of torture under the bush administration, and since then the senate intelligence committee has produced a come pre hprehensive on torture, and that has left us with some of the most controversial counter terrorism policies by brennan. >> in 2007, there was valuable information coming from the interrogation sessions, and i will tell you they did save lives, but senator, read ing in

report from the committee raises concern about the information i was give taent time and the impression i had at that time, and now based on that information as well as what the cia says and what the truth is, and at this point, senator, i do not know what the truth is. >> what, whoa? i don't know what the truth is. it is -- >> well, it is really -- it is a joke that he did not know. >> it is shocking, because he is one of the top three or four officials in the cia through the bush administration and if he does not know, who does know? what is going on here? >> and who should therefore be creating the kill list determining imminence. >> well, we know from long experience that torture is not the best means to get information out of people, and people will lie and tell you what they think that you want to hear and same with police beating suspects and getting the confessions out of them, and smart interrogators will get the truth out of people, and it

takes time, but they succeed. >> there is something about the stomach-turning recognition that american citizens had that we were engaging in torture so-called enhanced interrogation tech neegs that shifted the culture in this country, and there was a change of 2004 or 2005 when we started to say, no, this is not who we are, and the sense that what happened that went underground that we did not change and that is distressing for americans as we look at, if you can change an entire administration and still end up with the same policies. >> that is why obama actually was so popular in the world, because he stood up for these issues before anybody else in washington, and he is the one who came out of the world saying that the rule of law, accountability, transparency, and we are against torture and now he is the same guy appointing brennan, a guy that, you know, sit there and tells you lying to your face that telling you i did not know and

he was cc'd on 50 or more e-mails about these issues. i mean, this is something that will actually backlash against america, because if we stand in the world on something is our principles and values. >> one thing i should say though is that this administration other than mr. brennan has been forthright on the issue of terrorism. he declined to define waterboarding as terrorism in the hearings. the administration has been very clear. leon panetta when he was head of the cia was clear that it is torture and the u.s. does not engage in torture. while there is a continuation of policies related to drones and targeted assassinations, i don't think that there is necessarily a continuation of or ttorture. >> well, the debate we are not having is what are the contours of this, and if we want to win hearts and minds to go back to a vietnam plauz, what are thrase,

the contours of this? will it expand and come back to hit us in a strong way? >> as someone who knows the pro and con intell and we send people into the area to make people suspicious of each other, and killed people in a domestic sphere, aed on the know the ugliness and the nastiness of that and the ways in which have sat over and against any american notice that we are not the kind of country that does that, but to get on the other side of co-intel to say i need that to be reflected in the 21st history. >> and to that, brennan was the architect of the waterboarding program or in the testimony he said he was aware of at least 50 memos that it was going on, and

he did not speak up at the time. so if the obama administration has walked back for waterboarding, the reward of knowing about it is the director cia. >> well, he said he did speak up about it, but didn't push it. >> he said privately, but never publicly. there is another aspect of this, and look at the kun are tcounti we are demanding to reform and become more democratic. after the arab spring we recognized we used some torture, a imam kidnapped and taken to egypt and tortured. we asked the countries in 2011 after the arab spring to be more d democratic and not police state anymore and now we are putting brennan and this is a guy negotiating with the egyptian secret service, and the pakistanis and what is he going to tell them where the policy and hillary clinton is saying, we want democratic states and build citizens and he is going there with another hand saying, we want something else.

>> this is a fun dadamental tou question to keep working on and undoubtedly the light of the day that helps us to become better americans at the end of the day. i want to say thank you to the panel. we will have more of nerdland in a moment. we want to give you an update on the major snow blizzard that has more than 650,000 homes and businesses across the region without power. new england is getting the brunt of the snow. nearly 30 inches of snow has fallen in portland, maine, and breaking a record that was set in 1979. up next, more news. a chance for justice in a legendary civil rights case. my letter of the week is coming up. hi. hi.

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there is no time like the present especially when justice is overdue. monday, alabama legislature unveiled proposals that might finally of turn the convictions of the young men who were ranging from age 12 and 19 who were falsely accused and arrested for raping two white women in a freight train ride in alabama in 1931. the landmark case would eventually reach the supreme court and end the exclusion of black citizens from juries, but the scotsboro boys would spend their lives proving their innocence. for years it has been a blight on the legal system and time to correct the wrong, so my let ther week goes to alabama's governor. governor robert bentley, it is me, melissa. for 82 years, clarence, charlie, haywood, ozzie, and eugene and roy have been deserved to be clear officially of a crime they did not commit. given that we are in the middle

of the black history month, it seemed like a good time for you the mo make that map happen. i know you are aware of two bipartisan proposals in the alabama state legislature, and one declares that the scotsboro boy boys are exonerated and label them in a series of gross injustices, and the other would give the authority to the state parole board to grant them posthumous pardons, and even though it is late, it does not mean that we should not take steps to address what we can here in 21st century as they should have been. your office even commented on your behalf saying that you believed that it is time to right this wrong, so what is the holdup? these young men lost years of their lives because of the rampant injustice that your state allowed. all nine convicted by an a all-white jury and received death sentences with the exception of the youngest roy wright. two years after the crime, ruby

bates, one of the alleged rape victims recanted and testified for the defense. he reversal set off a year of court cases with the rape charges being dropped for five of the nine and the four convicted in the retrials. ultimately, it set up a lifetime of struggle for nine innocent young men. so if you need some encouragement, governor, to finally right this wrong, there's former alabama governor bib graves who commuted the death sentence of one of the scotsboro boys, clarence noyes, to a life in prison which was a step, and george wallace even though he was inextricably linked to segregation pardoned norris, and another small step or recent example north carolina governor bev purdue who signed pardons for the wilmington 10 who were wrongly convicted 40 years ago in the firebombing of

a grocery store. although four of the wilmington ten passed away, six of them saw justice in their lifetimes and unfortunately governor bentley, none of the scotsboro boys are alive today, but you have the power for history sake to take the ultimately take the final step to right the wrong that was done to these nine young innocent men so long ago. at some point, governor, justice must be serve foornd the scotsboro boys, truly no time like the present. sincerely, melissa. [ female announcer ] does your color have staying power... or just seem to fade away, day by day? don't compromise. new vidal sassoon pro series from the original salon genius. starts vibrant, stays vibrant. precision mix formula saturates each strand for 100% gray coverage. hydrablock conditioner helps fight fade out for up to 8 weeks. new vidal sassoon lets you say no to compromise and yes to vibrant color like this.

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it is african-american history month and we in nerdland want to be sure that by the time we get to march, you know more than you did in january so talk about the civil rights movement. when we think of the civil rights heroes, we think of those who defied the system challenging america to do better and be better through acts of

open defiance, sit-ins, and marches and protests in the streets tend to be the images that come to mind. but oether leaders who developed a different strategy for achieving equality. men like whitney young who used the influence of the board room rather than the power of the protest to get things done. originally a social worker, young became the executive director of the national urban league in 1961. in that role, young worked as a mediator and facilitator challenging the business and the political leaders to create economic opportunities for black workers in corporate america. a new documentary about young's life "the power broker" will be the airing february 18th as part of the pbs series "independent lenses." and we are joined now by his niece who is the producer and executive producer of "the power broker." everybody on my team is watching

the film, and let's start with t the number one critique of whitney young in his life and the one that the fillp takes on directly, and that is because he was not marching in the streets and instead working in the board rooms that he was an uncle tom or somehow selling out the civil rights movement, and how does this film make it on and give us a new and reclaimed whitney young? >> well, this film points out that whitney young understood more roles to play and the more sophisticated one got into the movement and everybody understood that, that malcolm x had a role the play and whitney young had a role the play, and it is important that we think in a nuanced way that, you know, everybody's p opiniopinion coul into the mix and move forward so the fact that he was in the board room meant that he was in a different venue and working behind the scenes to talk one-on-one to have it open up which is hard to do when you are on a platform and speaking to the crowd and the particular audience, so this is a different format that he employed.

>> and he directly said, let's listen to him from the documentary, hey, let's think about how one gets power. >> the irish kept quiet, and they did not shout irish power or jew power or what power, but they kept their mouth shut and took over the police department of new york city, and the mayorship of boston. >> so you hear the crowd giving him the laugh, so he is giving it completely dry, but it is meant to be a little bit of a joke. apparently that disarming humor was part of how young did this kind of interracial facilitation. >> exactly. that is one of the things that i enjoyed about learning more about him. one of my favorite stories not in the film, but a story about him going the eastern europe with the heads of fortune 500 countries where they had not dealt with an african-american man as a peer. so at the end of the trip, one of the guys said, gee, whit if more peopnegro people were like,

we wouldn't have anymore problems and he said, yes, if more white people were like me, we wouldn't have anymore problems. >> so how does the whitney young movement get lost historically and we only remember those who were marching and we miss those dhog work. i want to also listen to julien bond from the naacp on his response to young's strategy. >> if you think about a struggle between black and white people, and if you can't talk to the white people, nothing is going to happen. he was able to talk to white people and particularly well to do white people, business people who may have had an interest in settling racial problems, but they couldn't see it themselves, until whitney young came along and said, listen, you have a stake in this, too. >> yeah, so. i mean, i suppose that i have, you know, on and off feelings around, that and on the one hand i hear him saying that you have to do the work in an interracial

multiracial society of building the understanding and then a little angst about do we care about the corporate achievement as much as we cared about the fundamental civil rights and how do connect those in our memory in black history month? >> well, it is important to understand that whitney young waspragmatist, and it is important the change the ability of anybody to move into a neighborhood, but as a social worker, he wanted to provide the tools for which people could move into the neighborhoods, and you need education and better housing and job, and he understood that. that is what he was trying to create in the environment. >> speaking of education, there is a high school, one of the best in the city of chicago named after whitney young and the first lady went to and graduated from whitney young high school, and what do you believe he would say about violence in schools? >> that the job is not done enough to have people have a stake in their communities enou enough, and also to try to build bridges between never the

community, and between the people who are disempowered with the jobs they need to become stakeholders, but he would also say to the people who are in the chambers of commerce that you have a vested interest in protect ing t protecting the city, too. so i think that this is the kind of bridge building that he did. it was not about black or white, but that we all have a stake in this together. so he would be trying to find the points of consensus where things could get done and better housing jobs and so forth could empower young people to not become violent. >> given how inclusive he was, he was a scout. there is a boy scout award named for whitney young. what do you think that he would say about the inclusion of gay men and boys openly in the boy scouts? >> what he and other civil rights mission was about creating a better america. that was the point. it was never just about getting a person from one side of the bus to another, but it was being able to say, that we are all equals in this society, and we have to create this democracy

ourself, so this inclusion of people regardless of their sexual pref presence would be right down his ally and say, yes, of course, this is america and what we trust and love about each other. >> i want to take the quote of it is not about moving people from one part of the bus to another, but about joining the country. thank you. than you for the film and reclaiming your uncle's legacy here. coming up next, we told you we would stay on it. this week in voter suppression, and yes, it is back. they are starting early this time, and stick with us. the latest on the blizzard and yes, there is news, folks, it is snowing in wintertime in the north. more of the top of the hour. i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically proven to provide clearer skin. [ rv guy ] enbrel may not work for everyone -- and may not clear you completely,

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>> welcome back. i'm melissa harris-perry, and we are going to get to the latest in the outrage of voter suppression in a moment. but first, i want to take a peak

outside for the latest on the blizzard. up to a foot of snow is on the ground in parts of new york c y city. it is one of five states to declare a state of emergency. in long island a rare sight as heavy snow combined with a thunderstorm to create thundersnow, and more than 650,000 people across the northeast are without power this morning. the heaviest snow falls in are new england with three feet of snow expected in boston. the postal service has suspended mail delivery in six states in massachusetts and rhode island who have imposed statewide bans on road travel. the storm is taking a heavy toll on the air travel with 5,000 flights cancelled, but new york airports are beginning to reopen. stay with us for the latest on storm coverage and for those of us in new orleans the real storm watch is whether it is going to rain or not on tuesday in mardi gras. welcome back. during the presidential election we brought you one of the

hardest working graphics on cable tv thanks to the state's legislatures to impede democracy with the restrictive voting laws, there was barely a week that we didn't have to employ the "this week in voter suppression" animation. after those efforts failed to prevent president obama's broad coalition of turning out to vote in full force, we decided to f give the voter suppression graphic a vacation in recognition of a job well done, but it is the michael jordan of news graphics, because than fox the new republican scheme to block the vote, we are bringing nerdland's favorite segment out of retirement. that is right, it is the return of "this week in voter suppression." yes, we have heard a lot of talk recently from the republicans who after waking up to the possibilities of a growing latino electorate have pledged to do the tough work of making the party in the image of america's evolving demographics, and reince prebus detailed how the party is planning to give

itself a facelift. >> you have to have people in communities from the community, both hired an volunteer, from the community speaking to the community. >> well, turns out that's just plan a, and if all else fails, there is always plan b, which goes a little something like this. if you can't win new voters to the party fair and square by appealing to the interests, then change the rules so that even if you lose, you will still win. the latest plan comes to us from battleground pennsylvania and the state senate's majority leader there. his plan is simple. in fact, it is posted online. in a bill he plans to introduce this month, the state senator says plainly my legislation would allocate electoral votes propor nach natalie. and if at first glance it sounds fair, keep in mind that there are no states that traditionally vote republican suggesting similar plans. let's be clear, what the

republican is saying is that instead off all of pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes going to the candidate who wins the state which has gone to a democrat in every presidential contest since 1992 that the loser in the state should get some of the electoral votes, too. now who would that benefit? currently, every state except two, nebraska and maine using a winner take off system and whoever wins the popular vote wins the state's electoral votes. and six states have previously considered plans of reallocating redistricting like maine and nebraska currently do, and so instead of taking all of the electoral vote, they would only take some of them and the ones na were allocated the the congressional districts won and thanks to the congressional districts that were gerrymandered by the republicans after the 2010 census, and the majority of the votes would favor, you guessed it, republicans. here is what it would have

looked like in virginia which president obama won in last year's election. mitt romney would have won 8 of the state's 13 electoral votes instead of zero making him the winner virginia even though he lost the popular vote. if that sounds fair to you, consider this, the only states who have proposed these changes are the states that went blue for president obama and controlled by republicans at the state level, and so red states would stay red and blue states would be purple with republicans in play without the party having to earn a single new voter. the evil genius, unlike the changes to allow discriminatory voting policies, it could be violating the law, and there is a twist, because in all six of the states of the schemes to tie the votes to congressional votes, it is stopped in the tracks and not the courts or the advocates in each state, but no, it turns out that the plans that

were conceived by republicans also met their demise at the hands of state republicans. now at the table is civil rights dock you men taryne bonnie boswell, and michael walden, policy adviser, and also danielle moody mills who is also the wife of one of our favorite nerdlanders myiesha taylor, and and also ari, welcome back. so i am trying to figure out, this is an evil genius, and change order to give the electoral college more vote, no, no, it is for the republicans. >> well, it is a three-step process for the republican takeover. the first process was to win in 2010 and gerrymander the seats to be in power for the next decade. second step is to pass more voting restrictions so that the opponents are less likely to turn out to vote and the third

step is to gerrymander the electoral college on the same lines that you gerrymandered after the 2010 elections, so it will work together in terms of a thought-out scheme by republicans, and maybe they will fail at one step in the process, the electoral scheme might fail, but they have gerrymandered schemes, and you have the fight it on so many levels. >> it feels that part of the reason na we are getting a pushback is that the one thing it does is to koucounter very notion of the state as the primary identity of it citizens and one of the big fights that we have been having is a federalism fight that says are we sit zens of america or citizens of virginia, california, new york, louisiana -- is that part of what we are seeing the state legislators pushing back against the very thing that the members of their party are submitting? >> yes, a slnd a raw political calculus, too, that if they realize they were suddenly

reallocating the votes by national representation, the national campaigns would stop putting money into those states and ask most people what congressional district you are n and most of them could not tell you or tell you who the member of congress is. i'm no fan of the electoral college and fan of popular vote, but not in states that favor republicans or democrats. that is the thing that keeps stopping this from happening is that it just looks horrible, rand it is looking manipulative and looks like someone trying to rig the game after the fact, but you know, some state may pull it off. but i think that this is the more in sunlight this is, the sort more it smells. >> this is not a small point. this idea of being awake to the rules of the game. so often in the context of elections, we are just interested in the personalities running, but suddenly in part because of the work that you have been doing and the work of my colleagues here at msnbc, the

notion that the rules of the game are as important as the personalities running has suddenly become relevant. and now here we are talking about voter district iing. >> when you look at the districting right now it looks like a political pretzel, and people don't know where their congressional district is like you were saying, but then you look at it, and you are like, where am i supposed to find my ballot place, and where am i supposed to stand in line on election day, and one day, i'm a member and the next you are not, and that is what they are counting on. we have the hype in the presidential elections and sometimes in the midterm, but they hope that everyone is tired an exhausted and go back home and we will see you in four years. that is is what they bank on is us not paying attention and being exhausted from, i don't know, days and days and days of political commercials. >> and yes, and of course, having to stand in line for 83 hours which we will talk about more in a little bit. but i wonder if this is part of the long civil rights movement that just as we were talking

about the activism in the streets that draws a certain attention, but then the need to institutionalize change so that fairness is more routine. i wonder if part of what we are doing here is saying that the civil rights movement is not over and the fundamental question of voting rights is not over and we have to stay awake to it. >> yes, and if you look at the history of involvement of the populous in voting historically, many people have been cut out for a long time. first, you could only be a property white man, and women, and i mean, so, this is something that we have been dealing with for such a long time. and so civil rights broadly speaking, and it is human rights and our ability to claim our space as americans. really, we have to deal fundamentally, of course, being aware of all of the tricks important. there is no end to it. you know, there is going to be another dirty trick the next year and the next year and the next year. >> and ari, the one legislative attempt to end this dirty tricking was the voting rights act of 1965 which is up, and

being questioned, right? a real possibility that the supreme court will make a decision to push it back. tell us a tiny bit about it. >> well, it is ironic that the supreme court is going to hear a challenge to the voting rights act during black history month of all months. and you have to remember it is the most important act of the legislation, and the part five is the most important part of the voting rights act, and with retalking about this on the heels of the election in which voter suppression played a starting role. so this is not ancient history and not only not ancient history, but it is so relevant to what we are talking about, and the idea that we would gut the voting rights act now when we need it the most is unbelievable. if you just look at is the states covered under section five of the voting rights act, and six of the states covered passed legislation. >> and in the past two years. >> and those other states that are not covered under did the

same. so yes, a problem in ohio and alabama and mississippi, and they still need federal oversight. >> the bad guys are still the bad guys. stay right there. and up next another battlefield in the right for voter rights, wisconsin, the attack on early voting there. this is so so soft. hey hun, remember you only need a few sheets. hmph! [ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft is made with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. plus you can use four times less. charmin ultra soft.

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in last year's election nearly 400,000 people in wisconsin opted to cast a ballot early, before election day. in 2008 early votes accounted for 21% of the nearly 3 million votes cast in wisconsin and in fact, the state of wisconsin has

some of the highest rates of voter participation in the nation. with with near record turnout on election day last year. with those numbers, it would seem a prudent approach to voting policy in wisconsin if it ain't broke, don't fix it. except for one law mamaker in wisconsin seems to think that the rules could still use a little tinkering to make it so that fewer people could vote? currently in wisconsin early voting begins two weeks before election day and ends on the friday beforehand and early voting hours in that window are varied across the state and determined by municipal clerks. some stay open late into the night or weekends to accommodate the citizens who cannot cast a ballot in the so-called normal working hours. well, wisconsin senate representative duey strobel is planning to standardize voting hours for those voters in the state and cap the hours that the

clerks could offer for voting. the bill would prevent workers who are unable to cast a vote in normal workday hours from voting. it would also end weekend voting, putting a stop to the sole to the polls effort which churches have adopted to get people to the polls. keeping a close eye on that is mike brown, deputy director of one wisconsin now. nice to see you this morning. >> thank you so much for having me here today, melissa. >> this is complicated, right, because it is not ending early voting altogether, but standardizing it, an standardizing it in a way that brings down the available hours. and tell me what impact you think that would likely have on the historic turnout that you have in wisconsin. >> sure. sure. you are absolutely right. wisconsin has some of the highest voter turnout in the nation, and something that we

are rightly proud of. one of the things that has helped us to achieve that are the laws in the state to allow people to reng stgister same da vote early. what senator strobel is proposing is to place additional barriers to allow people to exercise their franchise. if you work in the day, you will have a harder time casting the vote. in today, in madison, the city clerk has decided to open up the office from 9:00 to noon to allow people to vote for the upcoming february election. und und under representative strobel's proposal, that would be illegal. >> why does this need to cease to exist? >> well, there is a myth of the voting impropriety in wisconsin and an interesting thing that we

opened up the records of the 65% of the people who vote in wisconsin and we asked for them to give us the proof of improper voting in wisconsin. and of the 65, most provided no evidence and most provided newspaper articles saying of the two dozen case of voting inpro mighty since 2004. they have built the campaign on voting on a myth. >> so, mike, remind me of this, reince priebus, the head of the gop is from wisconsin, correct? >> he was raised in ke know sha, yes. >> so he has clearly sort of had on the one hand the position that says that we need to be the par they is more for the greater broader and more diverse group of americans and on the other hand seems to be supporting exactly these kinds of shenanigans that will make it more difficult for that more diverse population to vote. >> right.

well, you are exactly right. reince priebus has said nice things about voting recently, but if you look at the actions over the years here at wisconsin at the national level, it will tell a different story. this goes all of the way back to wisconsin to the 2000 election. the election administrators here in the state of wisconsin actually changed the rules about being able to challenge voters because of the over the top behavior that occurred on the part of republican poll watchers under the state republican party here under reince prebus' le leadership. he has been involved right up through the current day of to gerrymandering of the state of wisconsin's legislative and congressional districts. your guests referred to this earlier, but here in wisconsin republicans received 49% of the vote in congressional races, but won 5 of the 8 seats. in the state legislature they received 174,000 fewer votes than democrats and added seats in the legislature, and it continues through with the

efforts to implement a voter i.d. law and thankfully enjoined by the courts at that point, but it is to estimated disenfranchise 3 million voters here in the state. >> thank you, mike browne, because it is not who casts the votes, but who counts the votes who decides these elections. and up next, how to fix the long lines at the polls in three easy steps. texas. for two days. then put a febreze car vent clip on the dash and let in real people. it smells good. like laundry fresh out of like the dryer. yeah. a man fresh out of the shower. nailed it. oh yeah. proof. febreze car vent clips keep your car fresh. another way febreze helps you breathe happy.

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whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time, by the way, we have to fix that. >> that was a great moment. that was president obama during his election night victory speech shouting out one of the problems that plagued the democratic process that dayment for many voters election day was an exercise and less in democracy and more like an exercise in endurance as they waited in seemingly interminable lines to vote. but some people in miami even

fainting in the process. the average florida voter waited in line for 45 minutes, taand t longest wait time in the country and not the only state where voters had to stand for hours. in virginia, voters were still casting ballots well after the election had been called. poll observers saw people in pennsylvania and ohio walk away before they could ever vote. it is a problem that we know how the fix. and in a new report the brennan center for justice lays out a blueprint to do just that and i so happen to have both the repo report and the president of the brennan center with me at the table. all right. michael, how do we fix this since the president said that we have to do something about it. >> and it was significant for him to say this on election night and in the inaugural address, because that is prime real estate. this is a visible symptom of the understood l

underlying way we run elections, but there are solutions to generally modernize the way we run elections. the first is to modernize voter registration first, and a lot of the problems are ram shackled voter registration system of p paper, that leaves tens of millions of voters off of the rolls and has errors and dead people's names and so forth, and every election two to three million people cannot vote because of voter registration problems f. we had the voter registration modernization that changed the paradigm that the government took responsibility to make sure that everybody who is eligible ston rolls electronically, it would add up to 50 million people and cost less and for the people worried about the fraud, it helps to deal with it as well. >> isn't this the model that you have for the draft, right, is that you have to opt out and not opt-in. so there is an exek ptation that at age 18 you go the register and vote, and there is a way in which we can actually generate a registration process that makes

pit norm rather than exceptional thing to do. >> yes, we think it should be opt-in but done easily and electronically and you will get many more people on the rolls and fewer problems causing the lines on the election day. so that was point one. the second thing that we could have and should have is minimum national standards for early voting. it varies widely across the country. and of course, we see how massively popular it s. it has inkre increased five times in volume over the last ten year, and imagine if apple said, oh, my goonsd, too many people are buying the ipad and we should cut back on the store hours. so that is not the way it works in the real world. >> it is interesting to use the example of kind of private indust industry, because it almost feels like, because apple does for example wait for that day to submit so that you have to stand in the long line for the new ipad or the mini pad or whatever, and they do it to k e create this demand for the thing

that is a consumer product, and that is not what voting is. voting is a much more fundamental democratic right, and yet, when we look at the racial disparities in the vote time and african-americans and latinos voting with vote wait time of 20 minutes which is almost double that of a white american, it is not that it is bad, but it is bad for specific people. >> and people need to realize that there is a political cost to restricting the right to vote. looking at florida 200,000 people did not vote because of the long lines that. i showed up and then walked away. that was incredibly unpop ular and the governor rick scott and the republicans down there looked bad. so lo and behold, governor rick scott and the republicans in florida are supporting the very expanded early voting hours they opposed, because they realized a political cost to this, and that message needs to get through to the members of congress. if they keep pushing the voter suppression, there is a cost, and they should back sensible election reform and a bipartisan process and both parties were

for early voting, and only in 2008 that early voting became a partisan issue, so no reason that we can't have a workable standard nationally on this with a bipartisan basis. >> the only thing that we need national standards about is making sure that we have enough voting stations in the precincts. it affects people of color and urban communities and poorer community, but in ohio, the big mess in the election in 2004 in ohio really, i don't think that it was karl rove sitting in a room with a button pushing the diebold button, but because there were not enough voting machines, and people got disenfranchised because of it. >> and the secretary of state made a decision to reduce the number of voting machines which leads in part to the question that why is this partisan at all? your point, ari, that there was bipartisan support in 2004 for

the early voting, and these sound like common sense kind of thing that don't require a partisan point of view. >> you make a good point and apple for example meets the consumer where it is, but the republicans do the complete and total opposite, because they are not interested in meeting the americans where they are, but in their restriction. it goes the show that my younger cow since live in florida and stood in line three hours and they are young, but when i think about my grandmother who lives there, did she stand in line for four hours? well, she did, because she a good democrat, but it paints a good picture of what the republican platform is about, and we have a big tent, but we don't care if there are chairs in it. we don't care if people fill it up. >> that is a nice way to think about it, the elders in the civil rights movement who did so much work, what would they say looking at the lines where people are waiting and fainting trying to cast their vote? >> they would say, are we still doing this? it is crazy.

the whole just to point about being able to standardize the voting across states, i mean, i was involved in a voter registration campaign in los angeles, because i was furious that or not only the democrats, but the republicans were not reaching out significantly to the underserved community. so we had to go out with the barbershop and beauty shop campaign, because i figured that is where they would be and talk to people at least in los angeles the if you have been a e felon, you can still vote after your parole is up, and they didn't know that. >> and you have a great point and we have talked about that and we will with the felon disenfranchise which has a multiplicative effect, because people think that they are e disenfranchised and they are not. and we will have more nerdland in a moment, but first, here is the latest on the massive snowstorm in the northeast with up to a foot of snow on the ground here in new york city, and five states including new york have declared a state of emergency and across the region 650,000 homes and businesses without power. in maine, nearly 30 inches of

snow has fallen breaking the record set back in 1979. statewide, driving bans are in effect in massachusetts and rhode island and stay with msnbc throughout the day for the latest. up next, the new mission behind girl scout cookies. get the thin mints, everybody. ♪ don't know much about history ♪ ♪ don't know much biology ♪ don't know much about science ♪ dent kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day.

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a full serving of fruit. but what you taste is the fruit. so even you... could've had a v8. who says that girls don't know anything about s.t.e.m. science, technology, engineering and mathematics and i suggest that you don't say this around this first grader, because at 7 years old, she is the youngest person to create a full version of a mobile application video game. yep, there's an app for girl s.t.e.m. and this little girl is so fly, she could reconfigure her application on the spot at the university of pennsylvania's boot strap expo.

she is an encouraging story and hopefully she can serve as a shining example and encourage more young women to pursue s.t.e.m. majors and positions, because just as many girls and boys leave high school wanting to pursue s.t.e.m. careers, fewer than half pursue them in college and in graduation, women are outnumbered by men in almost every science and engineering field a. at the table is dr. aleetha fullback who is directorf of the dr. mcstuffins foundation, and we are have dr. myiesha taylor, and also the chair of the coauthor of "why so few women in science and technology and engineering and

mathematics." i'm in heaven here at this moment, because we featured doc mcstuffins as a foot soldier, because she is representative of trying to get the young girls engageded in a different way of thinking. i want her to introduce you, doctor. >> hi. i'm doc mcstuffins and i want you to meet dr. may ven, because she is a pediatrician, and that is a special doctor just for kids. >> thanks, doc. she is right, i'm a pediatrician and i take care of babies and children. i wanted to be a doctor since i was 4 years old. my mother bought me a toy do doctor's kit, and i did checkups on my neighborhood friends. >> you win, because you were introduced by doc mcstuffin, and tell me about the movement. >> yes, in 2012, disney came out with doc mcstuffin, and a friend of mine on the west coast was watching the show and said, she is brown i like me, and then she

started to gather from the other people who were photo doctors photos of them and sent them to disney. so then female docs found a p s place for support. so we were like, why don't we continue this on, so we decided to create a organization called the artemus organization and so it is an opportunity to support and help each other, because we are isolated and spread out across the country, and the african-american workforce, 3% of them make up the physician workforce and for females it is 1.9% of the workforce are african-american females so we wanted to create a space of mentorship and neur churturing other and then we wanted to nurture the young aft african-american female watching this show doc mcstuffins. >> i love the language of the nurturing and providing a supportive environment. i was a brownie, and in the '70s, there were brownies and as

a girl scout, i sold many, many boxes of these cookies and it is one of the first times where i was together with girls not competing with them like in a sport, but we were together and working collectively towards projects, individual achievement, but also collective work in responsibility. what are the girl scouts having to do with s.t.e.m. education? >> great question, and first of all, i think that doc mcstuffin is a girl scout. she is really empowered. we are doing a lot around s.t.e.m. and working with girls for 100 years and the founder was focussed on s.t.e.m. since 1912 and one of the first badges was aviation and welding and working with technology at this time. so over the 100 years, we have actually adopted, you know, badges around these issues where the girls are focused and specifically around technology and math. as you know, our cookie program is the largest entrepreneurial program for girls in the

country. >> yes, the first time, and i'm not terribly entrepreneurial but it is the one time i had a business and went around to sell it and looked at the profit margin. in addition to being a girl scout, i had a critical intervention in my career as a political scientist and american society of women post doctoral, and so when we talk about the nurturing environment, a piece of it is the resources of young girls and young women and older women to do this work. what is the ua, we are search and work been telling you about what women need to pursue s.t.e.m. >> we are so proud of you and you are an amazing alumni for the fellowship. so auw does give fellowship to women specifically in science and engineering and has for many years burk in addition we do research reports to understand why there are so few women. there is a lot of literature on

this topic, and showing that the culture and the environment does play a big role in the why so few girls aspire to the careers and women pursue them. in particular, stereotypes and still exist the stereotypes that girls are not as good at math as boys and these have the harmful effects of girls. even if you don't believe it, you know it exists and other people probably believe it. so it can actually affect the way that girls assess their own abilities and interesting res research by dr. shelly correl from stanford university that among the girls and boys with the same mathematical achievement in test scores and grades, the girls assess themselves lower. so that can help us to understand why they are seeming not to be as interested while part of being interested in something is thinking that you can succeed in it. >> and good at it initially. and once we had a conversation once that african-american girls don't camp. i was talking about being a girl

scout and saying, no, no, of course we camp, but the very idea that there is some notion that what we can and can't do and what we are are and aren't, and that impacts the little girl years of what we will do next. >> my motto is be visible and fabulous and be in your space. we have told for a long time to walk down the toy aisles and construction for boys and dolls for girls. so a young age as soon as you open the eyes, you will get a message of that, and the same bodes true for the outdoors. you have black people who go outside. there is -- >> yes! >> but i have to say that in my job, because i cannot tell you how many offices on the hill i have walked in as a representative of the wildlife federation and i get a look like this -- like, just absolute shocked to see me, because of the stereotype has been black people don't do that.

we don't go outside. we don't camp. we don't hike. we don't climb mountains and the reality is that we do. >> and girls do math. and we do in fact count and the cookie program is more of an entrepreneurial program than baking program. i want to stay on this, because i want to talk about what first lady michelle obama has to stay about s.t.e.m. ♪ time for the checkup. it is okay if you giggle ♪ ♪ it will only tickle a little ♪ time for the checkup ♪ time for your checkup eel ali. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha. c-max says wheeee. which is what you get, don't you see? cause c-max has lots more horsepower than prius v, a hybrid that c-max also bests in mpg. say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid.

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woman. that message is more important than ever in today's world. >> that was first lady michelle obama in 2011 talking about the importance of young girls understanding that they, too, can pursue careers right alongside of the boys and maybe in front of them. that's the value of doc mcstuff fins. >> yes, the value of doc mcstuffins is that parents who have sons watch the show, they say, can i doctor, too? well, that is the power of it, because i didn't grow up with any doctors in my family, but had a lot of support from my mother, but there were many messages that i could not do that and i needed to apply to save schools and my mom had to say if i took accelerated classes and failed, it was not their fault. many messages there, and the support of girls with

organizations is key to nurturi nurturing. in a community and country that is more and more diverse, we need a workforce that reflects that. >> and we need girls to see something that resonates with them, but it is the adults giving the messages. and at girl scouts we have our own research institute and studying girl for years and what we are learning about girls in s.t.e.m. and they are proficient in math and science, and at a age when they are in fourth grade, but as they get older the message from adults changes the perspective on what they can do in the future, and what is interesting is that our most recent report called generation s.t.e.m. where we talk to the girls in high school, and they said that the number one important voice around s.t.e.m. careers is that we think that we can do it, but we list it low on the projection chart is that my father says to me, or that there is not a role model, so it is

not only about talking to our sisters, but our brothers in the final analysis. >> and you know, my best friend every time she goes to the computer, she has developed a new website or started a new app or something, and i said, man, nurture that. that is good stuff. >> and some other interesting research by dr. harold wecht a psychologist at stanford is about a growth mindset and cultivating a growth mindset in kids, and it will actually prot against the harmful effects of stereotypes in math and science in her studies she shows the population is divided half and half about a fixed mindset and growth mindset. half the people think you're born with a certain intelligence. half the people think your brain actually gets smarter and you get smarter as you learn stuff, as you challenge yourself. kids with a growth mindset are more likely to persist am math

and get higher scores in math. >> i love that way of thinking about it. that we're not just the bundle of things that we come with but that we can grow over space and time. >> specifically there's one nugget which comes out of it, praise kids for effort rather than their results. it's something they practiced with my own kids. it didn't come naturally at first. to praise them for something that takes them a week to do instead of something that comes really quickly. >> it's not that you got the a. it's that you worked and worked on the math problem. first it's time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> can i tell you i was a biopremed major the started out. i took myself out of it. crazy hours. may i just point out i've been on the air since 6:00 a.m. that worked out. >> crazy hours? do you know what job you have? >> what is up with that? we have a former senate majority leader tell us what he thinks is going on in washington right now with sequestration cuts looming. and the near historic storm

in the northeast. when will it be over? how long will it affect the economy and how long will travelers be dealing with all the airport delays? my conversation with that guy, colonel jack jacobs, one of the few recipients of the congressional medal of honor. he's going to share his story about what he did to be awarded his nation's highest military honor. you cannot turn away. it's remarkable what he did. >> he's extraordinary. he was on the show about two weeks ago and i sat there like that the whole time. he was great. up next, our foot soldier. singing through the halls of the hospital. is efficiently absorbel continuous amounts. citracal slow release continuously releases calcium plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose. citracal slow release. to compete on the global stage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them.

that's why at devry university, we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone is ready with the know-how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready. at devry.edu/knowhow. ♪ using cloud computing and mobile technology, verizon innovators have developed a projective display for firefighters. allowing them to see through anything. because the world's biggest challenges deserve even bigger solutions. powerful answers. verizon. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

hospitals can be stressful places, whether you're there for yourself or for a loved one there is lots of waiting, anxiety, and news can often be grich grim. now one man is taking it upon himself to bring a little joy to those hospital halls. our foot soldier is eugene taylor. he works as a patient

transporter at rex hospital in raleigh, north carolina. every day eugene is interacting with cancer patients, those with severe heart conditions and trauma victims. he's also a life-long music love who turns himself into a one-man band, taking up the african drum and adding shakers and whistles. all eugene needed is an audience. on his second week at work at rex hospital eugene asked his supervisor if he could use his lunch breaks to sing for patients and families in their waiting rooms. so he sings everything from oldies to gospel as he transports patients around the hospital. sometimes he sets up shop in the elevator, creating his own soothing elevator music. doctors, visitors and patients alike love eugene's presence. his positive attitude. but most of all his music. >>. ♪ where you lead i will follow

oh, yes, i will everybody's doing their own thing whatever looks right ♪ >> eugene says he gives up his lunch hour to do this so that he can give patients hope. his music takes their minds off their illness, even if only for a short while. and to those who don't have families there to support them, eugene says, "i want that person if their mother or father, son or daughter didn't show up, i want them to know eugene taylor showed up." for showing up and for sharing his music, for skipping lunch every day to feed the souls of the sick, eugene taylor is our foot soldier of the week. and this week's foot soldier was nominated by one of our viewers, christa summit from north carolina. christa is such a great member of the nerd line community she's been the one accumulating all our music on the show from spotify. if you know a foot soldier in

your community, please send us a note on our facebook page at facebook.com/mhp show. that's our show for today. thank you to our panel. and sticking around, i want you to stay and watch "weekends with alex witt." i'm sorry. i was walking and talking all at the same time. it was hard work. see you back here tomorrow. but i still have this cough. [ male announcer ] a lot of sinus products don't treat cough. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope, but alka seltzer plus severe sinus does it treats your worst sinus symptoms, plus that annoying cough. [ breathes deeply ] ♪ oh, what a relief it is! [ angry gibberish ] but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory

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